Evaluating categorization skills in children following severe brain injury

Children with severe brain injury often have long-term cognitive disabilities that might impair school classroom performance. Problems manifested in preserving sequences of ideas, generalizing, categorizing or integrating information to main principles, are considered critical components hindering successful integration into class. The present exploratory study investigated the use of the Toglia Category Assessment (TCA) to evaluate the cognitive categorization ability as well as the capacity to switch conceptual sets. Investigation of awareness was conducted both before and after test-task performance. The present study investigated also the capacity of the TCA to differentiate both between children with brain injuries and typically developing children, and between age groups. Included in the research group were 30 children with severe brain-injury (8-14 years old), and a control group of 30 children without known neurological impairments. The two groups did not differ statistically in age and gender. Children with brain-injury obtained significantly lower scores than children with typical development. Awareness scores of both research and control group were significantly correlated with performance scores. Results of this study provide discriminent validity to the TCA and increase the validity and reliability of this test for use with children experiencing brain injury. The study finding highlights the importance of self-awareness in treatment.